Zeal & Ardor

The story behind Zeal & Ardor, Manuel Gagneux’s one-man project, has been told more than once but it’s still a remarkable one. The seed for the avant garde project was planted when two separate sources advised Gagneux to do something with, respectively, ‘black metal’ and ‘nigger music’. The idea stuck and Gagneux went to work... Zeal & Ardor combines black metal with negro spirituals. The compelling and intriguing vocals and the obscure, hellish dark guitars created something of a hype last year with the release of the second album ‘Devil Is Fine’, the successor to Zeal & Ardor’s self-titled 2014 debut. We like to bill a wide variety of subgenres and Zeal & Ardor certainly fits the bill. (#GMM18)